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There seems to be a growing interest of DIYing pedals and repairing equipment here and while I have no intention for this site to become a haven for DIYers to stop by at I was wondering if it would be useful to some for me to assemble some simple, but useful information from what I know (which isn't alot but enough to get by) on getting started, some good links and sources of information, the equipment you'll need, how to simply debug things and some good basics to get started and how to repair your damaged pedal.

If there's enough interest I don't mind doing it, obviously if people wanna stick to seperate threads for the occasional question well that makes sense, it was just a thought...

What you will need to build your first effect...

The Main Items that will stay with you for every build:- Solder!- A Soldering Iron: I bought one for £5 off ebay nearly 2 years ago and it is still goint strong, so you don't have to spend masses but do remember it is your most important tool so don't be afraid to spend more on it, just make sure it is rated to atleast 25-30W to be able to melt solder and preferably with a fairly fine tip as this will make your life easier.- A Solder Sucker/ Pump or Desolder Braid: Not entirely essential but a useful tool for if you make a mistake or you want to remove a component.- Wire Snips/ Strippers: You'll need these to cut wire to length (you can use nail clippers etc though as Devi does) and you'll need something to strip the plastic off the end of your length of wire.- A Surface to work on: Preferably away from your Petrol collection and heat proof and away from any food preperation surfaces etc. and that you wont mind getting burns etc. on.- A Digital Multi Meter: Useful for Checking Continuity, Voltages, Setting Trimmer pots to make effects function optimaly & can be handy for debugging effects, highly reccomended but you can get away without one.- A Solder fume extractor: Handy to prevent inhaling solder fumes which can be a mild irritant and to prevent getting the smoke in your eyes, A cheap DIY alternative can be made easily http://www.thetonegod.com/tech/extract/extract.html

Wire Choice: Single Core or Stranded (Or in some cases Shielded)?Single:Pros - Easy to work with, Holds a circuit in place and goes where you want it, Easier to make a neater buildCons - Very Brittle and Easily Snaps after a few too many bendsStranded:Pros - More wire to make a connection, Better holding, More FlexibleCons - The extra wire could stray and ground or touch where you don't want it to, Can't be shaped.Shielded - Used for High gain circuits or circiuts with clock bleed etc.

Solder:Gone over many times elsewhere... Quick Summary, Lead Best & Easiest, Unleaded worse for you and the enviroment (yes I know you'd think it'd be different, look up why) but has to be used in some places to meet ROHS Standards, Silver solder - Expensive and not very special, not made entirely of silver only a small percentage, only used for complying with ROHS.

Germanium Vs. Silicon... The ongoing battle.Germanium - Inconsistent Production lead to an effect called leakage and very varied gains (making biasing a pedal very, very difficult) but while difficult to use and difficult to find suitable ones for current use they do have the benefit of sounding closer to a tube than a silicon transistor and have a smoother/rounder cut off overall though, but can be noisy in circuits, not reccomended for begginers due to the biasing issues and selecting a suitable one.Silicon - Generally no leakage and consitent gains, much easier to make a circuit with, suffers from having a harsher cut off though compared to germaniums (harder clipping sound) hence why people choose germaniums for a sound richer in harmonics... but they still sound good anyway and they're about 100x cheaper and 100x easier to find.

Capactiors:The important thing with all capacitors, they must be rated above the voltage they are going to see (that's what the voltage number on them is for), prefferably 2x so if your circuit is powered by a 9V power supply you want Capacitors rated for atleast 16V.Choice of capacitor - Some people say some types sound different or better and to some extent this may be true but to the average human ear, unless you're a stickler for tone, you're not going to notice that much difference probably, perhaps if you want a high quality build using capacitors better than ceramic could be wise, but if you cant find the right value, nothing wrong with ceramics, I use them all the time, here's an article written on the differences http://greygum.net/sbench/sbench102/caps.htmlElectrolytic Capacitors - Just to mention, these have a limited life span (some as little as a 10 year shelf life), if you have an old pedal (atleast over 10 years probably 20-30) replacing them can bring it back to life and it can also be the cause of a non functioning pedal, you can look out for them being swollen or leaky as a sure sign of them being dead too.

Resistors:Tollerance Rating -The percentage by what your resistor may be off from production, a 10% tollerance means your 100k resistor could be anything from 90k to 110k in reality, for better consitency, use better tollerances, but it's not essential at all, the tollerances do not add up throughout a circuit (10% + 10% etc.) the whole circuit will have a 10% Tollerance.Carbon Comp Resistors (Or Mojo Vintage Tonez) - These can have drifted in value over years, for example I had one that was labelled 100k but when measured was 130k they also had worse tollerances (add the drift to that) than modern resistors which can have tollerances of only 1% Carbon Comp also tend to be noisier, while these can sound better in tube amps (due to a swelling effect which people seem to like the sound of) in pedals they don't see nearly enough voltage for this to occur... but they do look pretty.Carbon film - Your bog standard modern resistors, do what they say on the tin, of average noise rating you could say they sound warmer in a circuit than...Metal Film Resistors - Only 1% Tollerances, The least noisy resistors there are but can be said to sound sterile, possibly useful for high gain circuits but in a pedal.. there's nothing wrong with carbon film, your choice.

Switches, What do I want...? (switch wiring diagrams in Getting started section of links)For your stompbox switch you want one of 2 things -DPDT (Double pole double throw) or 3PDT (Triple pole double throw)For just true bypass and no LED you just want a DPDT, if you have a high gain circuit or a circuit that oscillates in bypass you want to use input grounding, this will send the input to ground in bypass to help minimise the noise (you can still get bleed through)To have an LED with your Circuit you will want a 3PDT, it has 3 extra poles that you can use to run an LED to and the ground wire for it, that simple and it can still be input grounded.Say you want a circuit to have an indicator LED though and you can't get 3PDT switches (or they're too expensive) there is something you can do, with a quick wiring reshuffle and a simple additional circuit, you can have both! Here's the schematic of the circuit, known as the millenium bypass & a simple vero layout to build it with http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/m ... milckt.gif Vero - http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main. ... b.png.htmlThere is a circuit for a input grounded millenium bypass.. but with the extra components is probably more worth just buying a 3PDT but if you search the geofex site linked below, you can find the schematic.

Coming a board: There are 4 main types of board - Perf/Matrix, Vero/Strip, Bread/Proto & PCB Boards (An explanation of all and how to do layouts for them http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/Sc ... ToReality/ )Breadboard - Looks like this... Used to test/design circuits, Great if you wanna try something before you commit it to a more permanent type of boardPerf/Matrix -Looks like this... You can wire this straight up like a PCB layout or schematic, you just make the connections with wire to connect the tracesVeroboard -Looks like this... Uses copper strips to connect the components together, you just break the trace with a drill bit/sharp knife to stop a strip, nice and simple to use and do neatly but a bit trickier to do layouts for than other mediums, plenty of layouts out there though... my favourite kind of board.PCB - The Most permanent type of board, used to commit your project too, easy to use just solder your components straight on and it takes care of the rest, you can DIY them if you don't mind playing with a bit of Acid or in the case of the Devi Pedals, you can buy the PCB...

Debugging your Effect -http://www.diystompboxes.com/wiki/index ... =Debugging - Simple and Effect information on what to do when your effect wont work (Also features a really simple to make DIY audio probe that can be made from an old guitar cable, a capacitor and a crocodile clip)

Last edited by Scruffie on Sat Apr 17, 2010 10:17 am, edited 9 times in total.

This is true, I just wondered if there was enough interest to warrant spending time on it, there's atleast a ripple of interest though so i'l gradually begin to edit the first post into some information over the coming days... perhaps it could become a sticky thread after a while? that way I could take questions and edit the answers into the main post... just ideas.

Scruffie wrote:perhaps it could become a sticky thread after a while? that way I could take questions and edit the answers into the main post... just ideas.

And great ones, at that. I'm the type that just kinda dives into things and I've bricked many a pedal, trying to solder wires to things just to see what would happen. Having some good, well-written info would be a boon to just about everybody, I think.

And since there are so many modders here, why not consider making a wiki... that way, the work could be spread around and you wouldn't have to be burdened with all the effort. That might be more work than anybody's actually up for but we're just throwing ideas around, right?

elbandito wrote:If I get started on creating a wiki with Scruffie's info, is there a place it can be hosted?Does anybody even think creating a wiki is a good idea or is a sticky thread good enough?

I think a sticky is enough, if that, it's really only for the benefit of ILF users to help with searching as there is already quite alot of DIY info out there and I think there is a wiki for this sorta thing in existance somewhere too...

Thank you Scruffie, big time. I'm considering taking this plunge and the biggest hurdle is finding the right place to start if you have no prior knowledge and don't want to get too deep into electrical theory. I think this thread may be my ticket into moving from an enthusiast collector to participant in my own tone quests.Now if only there were weekend seminars taught by people like yourself or Devi, et al.

Carl_Hungus wrote:Thank you Scruffie, big time. I'm considering taking this plunge and the biggest hurdle is finding the right place to start if you have no prior knowledge and don't want to get too deep into electrical theory. I think this thread may be my ticket into moving from an enthusiast collector to participant in my own tone quests.Now if only there were weekend seminars taught by people like yourself or Devi, et al.

cheers for the hard work!

My pleasure, if you have any info you want added i'm open (and looking for) suggestions as this is for the people that need it, not what I think they need.

Scruffie wrote:My pleasure, if you have any info you want added i'm open (and looking for) suggestions as this is for the people that need it, not what I think they need.

Good luck on your quest for good tone

Thanks man. If you have any books well suited for a beginner I'd love to hear about them. Have been eying the Wampler book, but don't know if that's just internet advice reprinted in book form.Anything from Amazon worth getting?

Scruffie wrote:My pleasure, if you have any info you want added i'm open (and looking for) suggestions as this is for the people that need it, not what I think they need.

Good luck on your quest for good tone

Sorry, forgot to ask. Are there any resources that talk about theory or methodology? I guess the best example of what I'm getting at is that there are cookbooks that have recipes to follow and you just execute that recipe, which I imagine would be like coming across a schematic or mod. But then there are cookbooks that just talk about flavor combos in a broad sense, what usually works with what, origins, new twists on old themes. Obviously this style is more in line with experimentation. Are most circuits riffing on an existing design, or are certain chip combos a given and you wing it from there with an end result in mind?Hope that makes some sense. Its more of an intermediate question I suppose, but just wondering how people at a certain level start their designs.